The Sharks gave each of the 16,947 in attendance
plenty of reasons to walk out on their game with the Carolina Hurricanes on
Thursday night at SAP Center. After a miserable 1st period, the Sharks were
dead on arrival. Then a Christmas miracle happened. Trailing 4-1 with a period
and change to play, San Jose chipped away at the Hurricanes lead, and tied it
on an improbable short handed goal. Brent Burns, a guy that looks like Jesus,
literally walked on (frozen) water in the overtime period by scoring the game
winner to cap the most improbable of wins.

That overtime winner came
22 seconds into the extra frame, seemingly a quick and sudden death for the
Hurricanes who had to be kicking themselves for blowing a 3 goal lead.

The SAP Center ice turned electric for a moment, exploding when Burns slipped
the puck between goaltender Cam Ward's pads. Burns pinched while Joe Pavelski
maneuvered around a defender inside the blueline, taking a pass after he beat
Sebastian Aho for inside position on the Carolina net. Burns may have figured
that he needed to act quickly, save the Sharks luck finally run out.

They used plenty of it in the 3rd period, when then scored a pair of goals.

That luck was necessary given the atrocious start to the game.
Carolina went on a scoring spree to open the game. Aho opened the goal-fest
with his 6th tally of the season 9:01 into the game. The Hurricanes forward
helped with the forecheck behind the Sharks net, and then took a Noah Hanifin
pass from the slot to the right of the Sharks goal. Martin Jones had to come
out of his net to take away Hanifin's shooting angle, but by doing so, he
allowed Aho to easily stuff Hanifin's feed into a wide open goal.

Victor Rask buried an Elias Lindholm pass from the left side after the Sharks
botched a clearing attempt from their own end. Marc-Edouard Vlasic tried to
push the puck out of the right corner, but he bounced it off linemate Justin
Braun's skate, deflecting it right to Lindholm. Rask was simply a bystander on
the right side, but when Lindholm whipped a pass through the slot to him, he
obliged by sweeping the puck past Jones for the 2-0 lead.

Aho made it
3-0 less than 3 minutes later, taking a Teuvo Teravainen pass as he filled the
slot, and lifted puck past Jones to stun the Sharks.

San Jose went
into odd goal scoring mode the rest of the night. None of the Sharks goals
would be scored with 10 skaters on the ice.

With Dylan DeMelo in the
box for throwing his stick of all things, the Sharks found themselves on a
2-on-1 break after a Hurricanes defenseman picked the wrong time to make a line
change. Chris Tierney raced up the right wing, holding the puck as long as he
could before whipping a pass to the left side where Melker Karlsson whipped a
shot past Ward to cut the Carolina lead to 3-1.

Jeff Skinner pushed
the Hurricanes lead back to three goals by punching home a shot from the
doorstep after the Sharks failed to clear numerous chances around their own
goal. Justin Williams setup the goal with a scoring chance of his own from the
left side.

The magical goal ferry finally decided to show up for
San Jose with just over 2 minutes left in the period. James Van Riemsdyk helped
matters by taking a holding the stick penalty to setup one of three Shark power
plays.

Joe Thornton snapped a shot from the top of the left circle
with Tomas Hertl parked in front of Ward, catching the twine just inside the
right post. Ward had no opportunity to react to the shot with Hertl blocking
his line of sight.

San Jose took advantage of a Justin Faulk
interference penalty 8:18 into the 3rd period. Logan Couture one-timed a Brent
Burns feed from the right dot, putting the puck just over Ward's left shoulder,
but low enough to catch the top of the goal.

The energy in the
building began to shift on Couture's goal, because it gave the Sharks life. A
Burns interference penalty would not affect that energy.

Playing down
a skater, the Sharks forced a turnover in their own zone. Jannik Hansen led a
break up the left wing, then flipped the puck forward after Barclay Goodrow
inexplicably skated past two Carolina defenders. Goodrow gathered Hansen's pass
before racing in on net and slipping a shot past Ward to tie the game.

The Sharks recharged their batteries before heading to the overtime where Burns
worked his magic.

Game Notes:

* Paul Martin made his
return to the Sharks lineup after missing the last 24 games of the season.
Martin was one of two Sharks who would not record a shot on goal. Martin
finished the game with a -2 plus/minus.

* Brendan Dillon served his
one game suspension for his slash on Washington Capital defenseman Madison
Bowey on Monday night.

* The Sharks continue to struggle to sellout
midweek games. The announced attendance was only 16,947.

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